Squad news

DIAKITÉ LEAVES DEPORTIVO

31 Dec 2014Modibo Diakité is the first player that leaves the club during the winter window. The French centre-back only played three official games during the season and never felt comfortable with Víctor Fernández.

It was a rumor spread since some months ago and, despite it hasn’t been officially reported by the club, it’s taking place since now. Modibo Diakité leaves Deportivo after only four months in A Coruña. His contract is ending today, but the player left the city before the Christmas break and is currently searching for a club. The Frenchman has been linked with Serie A outfit USC Palermo.

The centre-back arrived on deadline day to Deportivo together with Sidnei and formed the long-awaited complements to the centre of the defense. However, while Sidnei quickly gained a spot at the starting team, Diakité never settled into the plans of coach Víctor Fernández. And it’s that the Frenchman was the fourth centre-back at the first team and spend several matchdays without even been included in the roster for the games.

He only played three matches with Deportivo during this season. Diakité debuted in the infamous 2-8 loss hosting Real Madrid. Truly the whole team was terrible, but a couple of his errors cost two goals and his reputation was damaged before the fans.

The defender had to wait two months before having a new opportunity and it was against the other giant from Madrid, Atlético. The team lost at the Calderón (0-2), but this time leaving a more decent impression. Diakité made a good game and soon had a new opportunity playing the full ninety minutes in the first-leg in Copa facing Malaga CF, he was among the best players and even assisted in the goal that meant the final 1-1. But by this moment his exit was already decided. The player didn’t feel comfortable with the little opportunities and neither Víctor was pleased with the situation.

The exit of Diakité is leaving Depor with only three centre-backs at the first team, coach Víctor Fernández has said that he’s open to allow the arrival of a new defender, but that he prefers to focus the efforts in signing a forward, so it’s highly possible that the role of fourth centre-back could end up to be for Fabril’s Iago López or for Álex Bergantiños and Manuel Pablo, duo that can also perform there.